hi there! I was missing in action last week, I went to the Unesco World Heritage listed Kihnu Island, believe it or not, albeit in Estonia, I have never been there before. That was on my wall of shame till last friday. Now I got rid of it.... we went with a colleague to introduce our new exhibition (on the treasures of the viking era from archaeological findings) and I drew sea monsters again with kids - and parents. So happy when parents participate, hey, I am even happy if they hesitantly touch a pen. I am not asking for much, I know how terrified grown-ups are of drawing, cause they´ve been taught all wrong. They´ve been taught there is a right and wrong way to draw. so stupid... I tell everyone: it is not about drawing "well enough" or "badly" it is about whether you want to draw or you don´t. If you want to just do it, anyway, the island is kinda like the Estonian version of Jeju in that it has a very unique nature and geography, it has sand dunes and some of the rarest plants in the country, and the main livelyhood comes from the sea (fishing).

watching:
38 Police squad - I love this so much. I like the ensemble and the independence of the characters - finally a drama where people make their own decisions. I love the musi, the theme songs Run and Cool.. and the sound effects at some moments. I feel like I can concentrate on the action, I dont notice what anyone is wearing or if there is daylight or evening or what their apartment looks like, I just follow what they are plotting, doing, planning... I like how the spiderweb grows bigger and bigger and more intricate.
but too few BTS clips :-( maybe I don´t know where to look for them. I want to see more of how they filmed this stuff.

Let´s fight, ghost! - maybe slightly stiff and entertainment-only, I am not too exited over this.

don´t have time for much else right now. been updating myself on newest music instead. our Jüri Pootsmann´s new video "Nii või naa" is partially filmed on the street I cross every day to work and you can see houses under construction that are right opposite our museum (I wonder why they left the museum out, have we been in too many videos already?)
and I really like the new album of RHCP
also, one of my favorite bands Traffic where our 2015 ESC artist Stig plays is releasing a new album in 2 days.
and estonian artists are getting a loooooot of comments from foreigners on Youtube.... looks like high times are coming for our bands and singers!

I marathoned all 8 eps of Beautiful Mind, and at the end of it, my heart bled and ached so much for our desolate MIB (Lee Young Oh always wear black, black shirt, black tie, black trousers). Though he suffered from ASD, he is strictly speaking not a sociopath, as he had been strictly trained by his dad to restrain himself and hide the inert emotions. He does not go around hurting others with any evil intent. His deference submission to his dad drove him into putting break neck effort to read facial expressions and mimic the behaviour of normal people in order to hide his abnormality.

While his dad had been cautiously guarding him to protect him, he also had been berating and condemning him for his disorder. What's more, the so called normal people he had trusted, particularly Park Se Young, the woman he had invested so much effort to "pretend" to love betrayed him deceitfully for her own self-interest. Ironically, in a way, she is more of a "sociopath" in displaying no qualms about betraying him in the most ruthless manner without an iota of empathy.

This drama also keeps me wondering, though someone with ASD cannot empathise, but is capable of feeling all emotions, like pain, anger, happiness, sadness, etc. Therefore, is he capable of really falling in love? It would be interesting to see how the love between LYO and Gye Jin Sung unfolds, though imo, she looks a bit young and naive.

I feel like dropping Doctors but is still holding on for the time being for KRW. Probably the screenwriter made an attempt to salvage it after the tirade of criticisms, it looked like HHH’s monologue was intentionally explaining to the viewers why he was so cheesy, i.e. he envied the childish and carefree way those in love behaved towards each other ?!

As for Uncontrollably Fond, thanks to Javabeans for enlightening us that the original Korean title actually means Lightly, Ardently, which describes the delicate love of Shin Joon-young for No Eul. This screenwriter is good at juggling anguish and despair to amplify the internal conflicts in the mind of her characters, her dramas never fail to give a melancholic and pensive mood. I loved her sorrowful and angsty Will It Snow For Christmas, so I’m sure we are in for quite a rough emotional roller coaster ride.

Finally Yiruma is coming! I just bought the ticket to his Kiss The Rain concert today, I feel so excited to be able to see him perform live for the first time since I bought his First Love CD in 2001, omg, that was 15 years ago!

Have a great weekend all ! :)

Happy Friday Beanies!
Sydney has been taken over by PokemonGo fanatics and my area has 1000 people (no exaggeration!) every night staking out the playground near my apartment to catch rare Pokemon. It's madness and I can't take my kid there anymore. But it is nice and amusing to see people of all races and walks of life having fun discussing how to catch imaginary creatures. Haha.

I'm really enjoying my current dramas- Beautiful Gong Shim is my guilty pleasure drama that makes me LOL and brightens up my day.
Doctors I'm enjoying for the female lead and the romance, also some of the trauma emergencies make me nostalgic for when I was working.
Beautiful Mind is the most mentally engaging and intriguing one- I'm glad I rewatched the first 4 episodes because I appreciated the mystery story so much more. So far the writer has been doing a good job so I'm hopeful it will stay good.
I'm lagging behind on the episode 8 of BM and the recent Police Unit 38 ones (I stopped because I got busy JUST as it got exciting ?), also Hapi Mari, so I aim to play catch up soon! Somehow ?

I never realized how editing made such a difference to the drama watching experience till recently. At least I think it's the editing- beanies please correct and educate me if I'm wrong.
In Doctors infamous kiss scene, and the motorcycle crash, the ending scenes were so over dramatized by the editing resulting in unnecessary and inappropriate pauses to the scene making it feel unnatural. The starting scenes of the following episode flowed so much better and made a lot more sense even though they had the exact same scenes in them.
Also, in BGS I've felt cheated by a few closing scenes which were misleading about what would happen next.
Has anyone else noticed this? I don't know why but I've been bothered by it recently.

I probably should post this under Beautiful Gong Shim recap, but I’ve missed the boat to join in the exciting discussion.

Since JS & DT had conspired beforehand, I do not quite understand why JS had to:
1. bluff GS into giving him DT's door code
2. transform into a pointy ear devil with dagger eyes when he ruthlessly ransacked his room though no one is looking (come on, his butterfly uncle is not that invincible to have him under surveillance in DT’s room right?)
3. nervously hide from DT when he almost bumped into him
I know the intention is to mislead the viewers, but it feels like a contradictory plot hole.

GS's imaginary scene with The Heirs ost blaring in the background - Lee Hong ki's I'm Saying, with DT walked stately down the red carpet while she frantically wrestled with the bodyguard to get through to him was so priceless, lol!! Though probably the song should be changed to BOF ost Paradise as DT is also called Jun Pyo. :)

The love between DT & GS is so refreshingly pure and cutesy but not sticky sweet, it reminds of the puppy love which is so innocent and uncontaminated. It is delightful in itself with its comical moments even without those premeditated cheesy lines and racy skinship which are so common in other current rom-coms. I agree that the only imperfection is DT's noble idiocy, he should initially reveal everything to GS and trust that she is mature enough to handle the complex circumstances surrounding his birth secret. But still, I will miss DT's cheesy wink and GS’s bobbed hair wig for a long time after this drama ends. 

Last time the thread moved so slow :)

Super super super excited for W - LJK :)

I love UF.. and the whole melo feel..

38 is fun!.. for me this is the best of SIG.. IRY was ok, and AM97 wasn't really my cup of tea

Thank God BGS, MOW, LR ended.. had started to get really bored of them..

Five enough - give me more of golf couple :( .. I am totally amazed how Sung Hoon hasn't garnered enough attention - He is amazing in New Tales of Giseang (its interesting how I don't ship them in Five enough when they had such an incredible too hot to handle chemistry in NTG), venus, noble my love..and i hear was good in faith as well

Finally watched school 2013 .. :D :D :D .. LJK!!! .. and to watch KWB where he is not the bully :P

Doctors - still watching... i have fun while I watch..

Wanted - the lead actress is not the best..but the series is interesting enough..

LFG - fun!!!

BM - except for JH's screen presence.. not sure what is so great about the drama.. actors are all good.. infact i think now it has gotten more interesting (outside of enjoying JH alone)

Yup..that's the line up for the week :P

- Any passionate romance drama? - jap/chinese/taiwanese/indonesian/philip/us/uk/wherever

Really curious..

Anyone has an idea if Kim Hyun Jung has managed to restore his image and fan base post new revelations of woman lying and trying to blackmail him?

Although I wonder how much of it is a lie .. why keep going back to the same woman..

And in his variety shows..he does come across as a very sharp guy!..
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What is wrong with this kids.. Mike (Thai) father at 24.. KHJ again an unplanned baby..

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Is older woman-younger man romance/marriage commonly accepted in Korea? I read somewhere that female ratio is low..so now they are more open to marrying non koreans also.

And on one hand when noona romances are so celebrated then why are older men-younger grl romances looked down upon!
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Happy Friday everyone. It's been an awful day and I can't wait for it to end.

News on Ji Chang-wook's upcoming drama would cheer me up a little... Kee?!

I have a crush with Doctors, due to Tae-Ho and his sparkly hat.
How could this guy be so adorable after so mean in Signal.

Sigh, finally the end of this week.

I've been served one too many disappointments this week and it's been making me down in the dumps. Feels like the world is against me. The "I kinda lost it when I couldn't get a shirt to iron straight" that kind of week, hur hur. The not happy even though I should be happy and not angry or sad when I should be angry or sad kind of week. And I've been cranky on the interwebs. Sorry to whomever I might have offended!

Anyways, I've therefore been pouring almost everything into dramas.

Picked up Beautiful Mind this week and the genre, "psychological analysis", has intrigued me. I did PSYCHcaps on my website and I can say that I'm not that in touch with emotions, hur, making the PSYCHcaps a bit ambiguous. I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed reading Confessions of a Sociopath. They're not something you take seriously like a thesis but offer perspectives that are interestingly different. Sometimes it's not just what is said or written that's as important as the tone and how it's delivered. Reading and watching those are like having to be JungDo - take in more that just what they're telling you; see what they're showing you.

The Good Wife k-ver is giving me !stan! vibes. I love, love, love Jeon DoYeon in this and I've never really watched her dramas before but now I'm a total supporter of hers. I love how she made HyeKyeong so hard yet so vulnerably humane. I did recap of episode 1 and I have to say that while it was difficult (much more than when doing other recaps), it was especially rewarding. I especially loved screen capping Jeon DoYeon's face. In one picture, sometimes you can see everal emotions there.

Police Unit 38 continues to charm and while I had been doing recaps these whole time, with Dramabeans picking it up, I'm going to let them do the heavy lifting while I move on to IMPcaps. I totally expect to pick up on somethings that I would never have picked up if I were to do straight recaps.

Uncontrollably Fond is such a beautiful drama I just couldn't resist recapping it. SO. DAMN. BEAUTIFUL. Although, the colours are really muted. I guess that's part of a melodrama. When will they have a scene in bright sunlight, when? Because I've learnt that sunlight is the magic light that makes everything better.

I'm still doing recaps for 1 Night 2 Days and I have to say that Yoo PD, while having a very different dynamic, has pulled together this episode. So far, he's only had one dud episode in my book (the last part of the Ewha special) and it's incredible how he's recovered from that because 1 Night is back to being enjoyable. (And laugh out loud funny, pffft.)

I did a recap of Episode 8 of Unnie's Slam Dunk and I just have to say that I love that show. Woman power 4eva! I wanna recap it too but looking at (14-1=13) episodes more to recap and catch up to broadcast, I'm a little intimidated, haha. Anyways, onward...

Happy friday all!
Dropped in to share my 2 bits

Lucky romance - i watched till ep12 then ffwd thru 13,14,15 and then watched 16. IMO they could have stopped at 12 and then spent 2 more eps on Dal Nim & Ryang Ha. RJY stole the show show. SO.CUTE.

Lets fight ghost - loving the anime/manga vibe to it. Hope it stays fun.

Should i bother with doctors?

have a great weekend!

Hi Everyone! ....... I hope you are all doing well today! ...... Suddenly, the internet/wifi is acting up, so we'll see how it goes.

Watched this week:

Beautiful Gong-shim - Continues to add a whole lot of fun to my weekends.

Lucky Romance - Just watched up to ep 4 and already I love, love, love the male lead!

Uncontrollably Fond - Didn't expect to be this interested in this, but here I am, watching.

Wanted - So I started watching this and what can I say ..... after the first two episodes, I'm kind of intrigued by the whole thing.

That's all for now. ....... Everyone take care and have a great Friday!

Happy Friday beanies!

Hope you are all enjoying your friday. I miss the sun.. What's the point of midnight sun if we're gonna have rain and fogg all the time. Yesterday at work we went for a walk with the children all dresses in woolen sweaters under the jackets. It's sad.

Dramaland:
-FInished watching Imperial doctoress. I enjoyed the show, though the ending wasn't quite what I expected.

Also watched the wacky drama Go Princess Go. This was almost to WTF Paris levels at times. And so silly costumes! It was addicting in all it's craziness though. That ending though...

-Re-started The Three musketeers. I had forgotten how wacky fun this was in the beginning.

-Still not started any of the previous or the new batch of dramas since DotS. Should pobably work on that.

I have a Doctors Crush to Tae-Ho and his sparkly hat!

Happy Friday lovely people!!

First, has anyone seen the film The Wailling? I watched it last weekend with my friend because we were in the mood for something creepy and we both really liked it. I was curious about others take on it.
From what I saw online, many criticized the film for being confusing but I thought it was part of its strength. It looked like the director purposely left out some important information in order to evoke the same feeling as the main character in the viewer.
Usually, the audience is allowed more knowledge, especially in suspense (in the Hitchcock tradition). Therefore, when a character needs to make a decision, you know which decision he/she should make and the suspense comes from the uncertainty of them making the right choice. However, in this case, when the protagonist had to make the ultimate choice at the climax of the story...I knew just as much as him (which was almost nothing) and I truly felt on edge. I did not know who to trust or what to do. I was felt as strongly conflicted as the character. I was really impressed.

I think I might succeed in slowly converting my friend into a Korean entertainment fan. She loved The Wailling and she asked me if we could watch another Korean movie tonight! We are going to watch The Flu. As anyone seen it? The reviews seems good but I would love to have some feedback. Is it more suspense or horror?

I bought tickets to a film festival and they are showing many Korean films! I am so excited to see one on the big screen for the first time! Unfortunately, I could only pick two movies that were playing the weekend I would be in the city, which limited my choices considerably (no Ryu Junyeol:( ). So I am going to see Train to Busan. I hope it's good despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of Zombies...the only exception being Zombieland and the comic The Afterlife with Archie.

Anyways, I also feel the need to share my love for Awl. I probably would have never watched this drama if it weren't for the many positive reviews I've seen because, honestly, the premise on paper sounds incredibly boring...I never expected to love it so much! The show is surprisingly both funny, touching and thrilling! I love all the characters but I especially love Ji Hyunwoo's Lee Suin. Love love love it!!

I am going to miss seeing Ryu Junyeol every week :(

.... sorry I rambled on a bit there...

Happy Friday! It is hard to keep up with all these dramas (not that I am complaining). And I am glad now JB has 3 threads we can talk about ALL dramas- Open Thread, What we are watching, and Weekly viewership ratings. And there are more recaps than ever before (It seems all come out after Thursday- I am still trying to catch up, and again I am not complaining. I am just cursing at myself who can't find more time to catch this all up.

btw How did you like the ending of Lucky Romance? Ryu Joon-yeol got to keep his nickname from Reply 88 -Uh Nam Ryu = 'Anyway husband is Ryu Joon-yeol' (urgh. good only until when) = 'Anyway what's left is Ryu Joon-yeol' (Lucky Romance) heh.

This week there was an article talking about some hot issue/trend by reporters covering entertainment industry [The Fact] Six reporters - GIH, KHG, KMJ, KGM, YSH, GSJ (used only initials, assuming their names are not important) participated in this talk.

GIH: Today's topic is about actresses. Thesedays it is almost called 'actresses famine' because there are less of a new actress. More and more 'Acting dol'(Idol who does acting) are joining for lead and supporting roles.
YSH: Currently Minah in 'Beautiful Gongshim', Suzy in 'Uncontrollably Fond', Nana in 'Good wife', and Jun Hyo-sung in 'Wanted' are working actively. Also dramas to be aired later this year will have many idol stars who take lead and supporting roles. Noticeably in almost all dramas, Acting dols are playing active roles.
GIH: They are so many indeed. We had actors who were idols in dramas before, but this must be the first time we have this many.
KGM: It is true that when you see the casting news of an idol for a highly expected project, there are more voice of worries than optimism. But the expectation on Acting dol seem to be changing.
KHG: Minah of Girl's day is getting positive response from the viewers (for Gongshim). They complain about the plot being cliché, but complement her acting.
YSH: In Girl's day group, there is Hye-ri who became popular for Reply 88, but it was Minah who started the acting first time. She also received the new actress award for the movie 'Holly' in 2013 international movie festival.

KHG: Suzy in Miss A solidified her place as Acting dol doing dramas and movies, but in her case, she gets bad and good reviews. I wonder it depends on characters she plays. There were general opinion that her movie 'Doriwhaga' was too much for her.
KGM: I heard thesedays the idol who is in charge of 'Acting dol' in the group gets acting lessons as part of his/her training. It seems that there is less distinction between being singer and actor.
GSJ: Previously it was known that idol members who were in the center of the Hallyu were casted in the drama to help exports of the drama, so there were lots of criticism about casting idols without considering acting skills. But thesedays people seem to approve their acting talents in addition to their name value.

I can't wait to watch next episodes of 'Police Unit 38'. I like everyone in the scam team, and like how newbie Lee Sunbin(22) plays Jo Mi-joo (cool and natural). Here is her interview [Star News, OSEN]

Lee debuted in 2014 and only appeared in 2 dramas before (in 'Madame Antoine' as a customer, and in OHYA as Jin-sang's Monday girl -Did anybody recognize her??) "I started as a musical actress while I was in high school. Besides acting, I worked various part-time jobs including Shopping mall and CF models. I think these experiences I had earlier than other people became foundation for my acting. For the scripts, I memorize them by writing it- Because I am not smart. And because I feel that I can do natural acting when I know my partner's lines, I am trying to memorize other people's lines too. I think I am very lucky to join in PU38. I heard competition was very high for Jo Mi-joo role (It was 100:1 competition audition). Of course I prepared hard, but I didn't expect much. I thought it might not be a role a newbie like me could do, but I got the job. Frankly I was happy but also felt pressured a lot.

About Mi-joo character she plays, she said. "I think Mi-jo looks like porcupine with sharp spines because she has many stories-to-tell and thoughts but she is delicate inside. She tries to overcome difficulties by herself. I studied even tone of her voice not to show innocent when I play Mi-joo. Doing that I truly became to understand why Mi-joo behaves that way, and why she talks that way."

She says team work of PU38 is the best. "On the set I am the youngest. I also have lots of aegyo, so I am filming being loved by sunbae-nim(senior actors). Everybody plays jokes a lot, but it is so fun that I am enjoying it. People usually think I am timid by looking at my picture, but I actually have lots of aegyo and not picky at all. And Sunbae-nim make me feel at ease. As a newbie, I might not do well feeling timid and pressured, but they do the research on my character even down to my outfit styling, and make the atmosphere I can act comfortably, so I was/am able to immerse in Mi-joo character. It is given the set atmosphere is good. Filming is fun for sure, and project is interesting. Also we receive lots of love from the viewers. I wish shooting for PU38 never ends."

She said she is not the type staying quiet, so she mingles with other actors during break, and they give advices like "Doing this way seem to fit Mi-joo better'. She also mentions about Seo In-kook and Ma Dong-suk. "Seo In-kook oppa makes fun of me, but he takes care of me behind. I think he is 'CheunDaeRe'(cold/awkward outside, but warm/soft inside). He is mood maker who makes set atmosphere warm along with Ma sunbae. He monitors my acting in detail, and provide lots of advice and ideas. I must have luck with people..

A little woman positivity because we talk about actors a lot.

Questions: Which actresses have you seen in the most projects? Child, young, older & mature (any category you want) Does the number of projects you've seen them in heighten your opinion of them or lower it? And why?

Park Shin Hye is my young actress atm. I've seen her in 6 full length projects and 2 cameos. My opinion of her is heightened by the projects because while her character descriptions are similar sometimes, she still manages to make each one their own person.

I'll have to think about the other categories, especially child. My main comment will be further down.